San Diego Century Bicycle Tour

103- Mile Dos Picos Course
May 16, 2009

                                                         
A century, or 100-mile ride, is the marathon of cycling. It’s that distance that proves you’re a serious cyclist – or at least serious enough to put in the time and training necessary to complete such a ride.  Although there are plenty of longer distance races and rides out there, completing a century is truly an accomplishment.  When we heard about the San Diego Century, we decided that it was time to put the ElliptiGO to the test. 

We chose this ride in particular because the route seemed like a good, challenging course and the start was only about 5 miles from our headquarters.  Although in a perfect world we probably would have trained a little more beforehand, we ended up having a great experience. Brent flew through the 103-mile course and Bryan went along as the videographer, completing the 66-mile Del Sur course on the blue Echo prototype.

Here’s how the sponsors described the 103-mile Dos Picos course on their website:                                                                                          

“The Dos Picos (Purple) Course 103 MILE ride (THE San Diego Century) that follows the BLUE course around Lake Hodges and then the GREEN course up to Poway, but then takes a turn for the worse. Riders TURN EAST and climb up the mountain to Ramona on Scripps Poway Parkway (including The Purple Monster - a 600’ climb in around 2 miles) passing the highest point on the course - “Dos Picos” peak (1855’ elevation) on the road to Ramona. The Purple Course is a beautiful and quite challenging ride for the well-conditioned cyclist that should not be lightly attempted. Completing the “Dos Picos” course is an accomplishment.”     

Brent and the green prototype did great!  
He finished the ride in 7 hours and 1 minute, right in the middle of the pack of cyclists.  His average speed was just under 15 miles per hour.  As you’ll see in the short video below (Bryan didn’t get much footage – we definitely need a helmet camera), the ride was typical for us – passing a ton of cyclists on the climbs and  then getting passed by them on the descents.  Once again, the prototypes performed flawlessly on both rides (Bryan ended up finishing the 66-mile ride in 4 hours and 6 minutes, for an average speed of 16 mph). Without a doubt, it was a fantastic day for the ElliptiGO team and Brent's completion of the first century on an ElliptiGO has put to rest any lingering doubts about how well these bikes perform in terms of average speed, use over extended distances, and ability to climb hills.